Ten Years After
| years_active = | label = | associated_acts = | website = | current_members = Chick Churchill Ric Lee Marcus Bonfanti Colin Hodgkinson | past_members = Alvin Lee Leo Lyons Joe Gooch }} Ten Years After are an English blues rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition they had twelve albums enter the US ''Billboard'' 200, and are best known for tracks such as "I'm Going Home", "Hear Me Calling", "I'd Love to Change the World" and "Love Like a Man". Their musical style consisted of blues rock, and hard rock. History Blues Festival, 2009]] The band's core formed in late 1960 as Ivan Jay and the Jaycats. After several years of local success in the Nottingham/Mansfield area, known since 1962 as the Jaybirds and later as Ivan Jay and the Jaymen, Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons founded Ten Years After. Ivan Jay (born Ivan Joseph Harrison, 1939, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, died in April 2009, USA) sang lead vocals from late 1960 to 1962 and was joined by Ric Lee in August 1965, replacing drummer Dave Quickmire (born David Quickmire, 1940, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire), who had replaced Pete Evans (born Peter Evans, 1940, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire) in 1962. Ray Cooper (born 11 November 1943, Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire) played rhythm guitar, vocals from 1960 to 1962. In 1966, The Jaybirds moved to London to back The Ivy League. In the same year, Chick Churchill joined the group as keyboard player. That November, the quartet signed a manager, Chris Wright, and changed their name to Blues Trip. Using the name Blues Yard they played one show at the Marquee Club supporting the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They again changed their name, to Ten Years After – in honour of Elvis Presley, an idol of Lee's. (This was ten years after Presley's successful year, 1956). Some sources claim that the name was pulled by Leo Lyons from a magazine, advertising a book, Ten Years After The Suez (referring to the Suez Crisis). The group was the first act booked by the soon-to-be Chrysalis Agency. It secured a residency at the Marquee, and was invited to play at the Windsor Jazz Festival in 1967. That performance led to a contract with Deram, a subsidiary of Decca — the first band Deram signed without a hit single. In October 1967 they released the self-titled debut album, Ten Years After. In 1968, after touring Scandinavia and the United States, Ten Years After released a second album, the live Undead, with the noteworthy song, "I'm Going Home". They followed this in February 1969 by the studio issue Stonedhenge, a British hit that included another well-known track, "Hear Me Calling" (it was released also as a single, and covered in 1972 by the British glam rock rising stars, Slade). In July 1969, the group appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, in the first event rock bands were invited to. Between 26–27 July 1969, they appeared at the Seattle Pop Festival held at Gold Creek Park. On 17 August, the band performed a breakthrough American appearance at Woodstock; their rendition of "I'm Going Home" featuring Alvin Lee as lead singer, was featured in both the subsequent film and soundtrack album and catapulted them to star status. In 1970, Ten Years After released "Love Like a Man", the group's only hit in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #10. It was the first record issued with a different playing speed on each side: a three-minute edit at 45rpm, and a nearly eight-minute live version at 33rpm. This song was on the band's fifth album, Cricklewood Green. In August 1970, Ten Years After played the Strawberry Fields Festival near Toronto, and the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. In 1971, the band switched labels to Columbia Records and released the hit album A Space in Time, which marked a move toward more commercial material. It featured the group's biggest hit, "I'd Love to Change the World". In late 1972, the group issued their second Columbia album Rock & Roll Music to the World and, in 1973, the live double album Ten Years After Recorded Live. The band subsequently broke up after their final 1974 Columbia album, Positive Vibrations. The members reunited in 1983 to play the Reading Festival, and this performance was later released on CD as The Friday Rock Show Sessions – Live at Reading '83' ''. In 1988, the members reunited for a few concerts and recorded the album ''About Time (1989) with producer Terry Manning in Memphis. In 1994, they participated in the Eurowoodstock festival in Budapest. In 2003, the other band members replaced Alvin Lee with Joe Gooch, and recorded the album, Now. Material from the following tour was used for the 2005 double album, Roadworks. Alvin Lee mostly played and recorded under his own name following his split from the band. He died from complications during a routine medical procedure on 6 March 2013. Ric Lee is also currently in a band called Ric Lee's Natural Born Swingers, along with Bob Hall. In January 2014, it was announced that both Gooch and Lyons had left Ten Years After. Two months later, veteran bass player Colin Hodgkinson and singer/guitarist Marcus Bonfanti were announced as their replacements. Band members ;Current members * Chick Churchill – keyboards (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–present) * Ric Lee – drums (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–present) * Marcus Bonfanti – guitar, vocals (2014–present) * Colin Hodgkinson – bass (2014–present) ;Former members * Alvin Lee – guitar, vocals, harp (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–2003; died 2013) * Leo Lyons – bass (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–2014) * Joe Gooch – guitar, vocals (2003–2014) Timeline ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:90 top:5 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/2016 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1967 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1968 Colors = id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals,_guitar id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass,_vocals id:Keys value:purple legend:Keyboards,_piano id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums,_percussion id:lines value:black legend:Studio_albums id:lines2 value:gray(0.85) legend:Live_albums BarData = bar:Alvin text:"Alvin Lee" bar:Joe text:"Joe Gooch" bar:Marcus text:"Marcus Bonfanti" bar:Leo text:"Leo Lyons" bar:Colin text:"Colin Hodgkinson" bar:Chick text:"Chick Churchill" bar:Ric text:"Ric Lee" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(11,-4) bar:Chick from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Keys bar:Chick from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Keys bar:Chick from:01/01/1988 till:end color:Keys bar:Ric from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Drums bar:Ric from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Drums bar:Ric from:01/01/1988 till:end color:Drums bar:Leo from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Bass bar:Leo from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Bass bar:Leo from:01/01/1988 till:31/12/2013 color:Bass bar:Colin from:01/01/2014 till:end color:Bass bar:Alvin from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Vocals bar:Alvin from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Vocals bar:Alvin from:01/01/1988 till:31/12/2003 color:Vocals bar:Joe from:01/01/2004 till:31/12/2013 color:Vocals bar:Marcus from:01/01/2014 till:end color:Vocals LineData = at:27/10/1967 color:black layer:back at:22/02/1969 color:black layer:back at:17/04/1970 color:black layer:back at:01/12/1970 color:black layer:back at:01/08/1971 color:black layer:back at:01/04/1974 color:black layer:back at:22/10/1989 color:black layer:back at:13/07/2004 color:black layer:back at:01/01/2008 color:black layer:back at:10/09/1968 color:lines2 layer:back at:01/06/1973 color:lines2 layer:back at:01/01/2001 color:lines2 layer:back at:01/01/2003 color:lines2 layer:back at:01/01/2005 color:lines2 layer:back at:01/01/2014 color:lines2 layer:back Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums * Double Deluxe (1970) * Ten Years After (1971) * Alvin Lee and Company (Deram, 1972) * Going Home (Deram, 1975) * Classic Performances of (Columbia, 1976) * London Collector – Greatest Hits (London, 1977) * Profile (1979) * Ten Years After (1980) * Hear me calling (Decca, 1980, A Tony Watts compilation) * Timewarps (1983) * The Collection (1985) * At Their Peak (1987) * Universal (1987) (Chrysalis Records) * Portfolio: A History (1988) * The Collection (1991) * Essential (1991) * Pure Blues (1995) * I'm Going Home (1996) * Premium Gold Collection (1998) * The Best of (2000) * Very Best Ten Years After Album Ever (2001) * Ten Years After Anthology (2002) Bibliography * The New Musical Express Book of Rock, Star Books, 1975. ISBN 0-352-30074-4. * * Alvin Lee and Ten Years After – Visual History – Herb Staehr, Free Street Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0970870001 References External links * Ten Years After Official Website 2014 - featuring Ric Lee, Chick Churchill, Marcus Bonfanti and Colin Hodgkinson * The Ten Years After Official Archive website * The original Ten Years After website * Ten Years After Fan Website * History of Ten Years After with Alvin Lee * Interview with Alvin Lee * Alvin Lee official website * Chrome Oxide information Category:Chrysalis Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Decca Records artists Category:Deram Records artists Category:English blues rock musical groups Category:English hard rock musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1966 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1974 Category:Musical groups reestablished in 1988 Category:Music in Nottinghamshire Category:1966 establishments in England